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Boulder Valley's budding scientists show off their brainpower

Hundreds display at Corden Pharma Colorado Regional Science Fair

By Alex Burness Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
02/28/2013 07:14:59 PM MST

Updated:
02/28/2013 07:15:58 PM MST

Pacifists, take note: It might be time to distance yourself from the bread-lovers in your life.

Tyler Pelkey, a junior at Nederland High School, hypothesized that there would be a correlation between food and aggression. She spent months conducting surveys and analyzing data, and she presented her results at Thursday's Corden Pharma Colorado Regional Science Fair.

"There was higher aggression in the people who consumed more grains," the 16-year-old said. "People who consumed more fruits, vegetables and proteins tend to fall into the group of moderate aggression."

Pelkey and about 300 other Boulder Valley middle and high school students put on their Sunday best and gathered at Boulder's University Memorial Center for the event. The young scientists, most of whom had worked with mentors and teachers in the months leading up to the fair, set up display booths and presented their original, independent studies to a team of 135 judges.

The judging panel was comprised of Ph.D. candidates, University of Colorado professors and other local scientists. The judges evaluated the projects using five categories: creative ability, scientific thought, thoroughness, skill and clarity.

"Most of them are pretty amazing," said Oakleigh Thorne, who has judged this event for nearly a dozen years. "It's wonderful to see them coming along and having an interest in science. We really need a whole new generation of good scientists."

The fair featured projects from a diversity of fields, including engineering, mathematics and computer science.

Flora Richey and Zivvy Epstein, both seniors at Boulder High School, collaborated on a study of the social psychology of blindness.

"There's never really been anything that looked at the moral judgments of blind people," said Epstein, 18. "We decided that it'd be a really cool, interdisciplinary approach to this project."

The partners both had research internships last summer, but the blindness project taught them a lesson in practical application.

"This was our first time doing this on our own, so there was much trial and error," Epstein said, adding that, "We learned conciseness and clarity are really important."

Helming their own projects is a critical skill that science fairs reinforce, Peak to Peak Charter School science teacher Andrea Smith said.

"For them to go through that process of being a scientist, and actually doing a lab to answer their own questions, is really important," she said. "Many teachers don't make it a priority to build in the inquiry piece, so for kids to have an opportunity to really focus on doing that is huge."

Centaurus High School senior Sam Patzer relished the aspect of private inquiry, and wound up learning a coding system and producing a prototype mobile app called "iSchool Planner," which organizes class schedules and assignments for students.

"It was a brand new experience for me," said Patzer, 17. "I had a lot of fun with it."

Along with the opportunity to construct their own studies, the fair's participants got a taste of what they can expect if they ever become professional scientists.

"This is what science is all about -- a collaborative process where you're judged by your peers," said fair judge Matthew Moore, who is working at CU on his Ph.D. in mathematics. "You present what you've done to people who might know more about it than you do, you explain it and then you're judged based on that."

The fair's winners will be notified via email today, and an awards ceremony will be held Saturday morning at Boulder's Platt Middle School.

Meghan Doherty, left, and John Kern, both from Centaurus High School, talk about their project on peanut biodiesel at the Corden Pharma Colorado Regional Science Fair on the University of Colorado campus on Thursday.
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